With a successful debut season notched on our collective belts, the Baseball Prospectus Prospect Staff entered the offseason rankings process with the arrogance of kings and virility of after-hours thespians; that is, until we started our first prospect debates and discussions and realized the enormity of the task at hand and responsibilities on our plate to produce at the highest possible level. Our process has been detailed several times on this site and is as vital to the finished product as the physical characteristics of the players we evaluate. Our prospect-based Socratic method is the tool that sculpts our results, a lengthy internal debate that weighs the merits and tool-based misfortunes of those we are tasked with studying and sorting. The names are chiseled down into an appealing form, and then outside-the-organization sources are brought into the mix, where their opinions and reports are added to the representational body. Only after the fact are the relevant teams contacted for their thoughts on the list; an opportunity to extract developmental progressions and check the accuracy of the tool-based grades. The finished product is a combination of art and science, a fluid and evolving subject matter that is captured and frozen in the snapshot of a given moment and put on display.

The process for the individual team lists is the same process used to compile the Baseball Prospectus 101, a team of hands shaping a work that I am fortunate enough to put my name on. While I get to reap the rewards of all the hard work, the wealth of scouting talent I get to feed from deserves due credit, and before we get to the meat of the meal, I’d like to shine some light on those who often live in the shadows.

From the original prospect team assembled before the ink on Kevin Goldstein’s Astros contract was dry, Nick J. Faleris, Mark Anderson, and Chris Mellen. Their voices carry substantial weight, and when their fingerprints are found on the work, the finished product is significantly better as a result. Over the last year, the prospect staff has grown, and it will continue to grow as long as teams like the Rays, Cardinals, and Diamondbacks don't stop hiring away our evaluators. We’ve added Jeff Moore, a former college coach who has taken over the Minor League Update and produces quality work for the site on a daily basis. We’ve added several new interns to our already strong stable of up-and-coming young talent, including Ryan Parker and Steffan Segui, two sharp talent evaluators who will eventually make some team stronger when they are hired on as scouts. But please don’t hire them yet.

Finally, our relationship with Perfect Game grants us an invaluable resource when it comes to the evaluation of prospects, as they can provide us with glimpses of what the applicable player looked like before entering the professional fold, the genesis of the developmental process and skeleton of the prospect profile.

Simply put, all the personnel involved elevate the product to a level it would fail to achieve without their influence. We don’t always [read: often] agree, and consensus isn’t the goal. But the information tug-of-war we engage in creates the necessary tension to support the decisions we make and players we choose to stand behind. The following is a byproduct of that collective scouting tension: The Baseball Prospectus 101.

Understandable. Not lumping the two pitchers in the same group, but Giolito shot up like a rocket with a serious injury. Does Guerrieri make a top 125, a top 150, or is the drug slap a very heavy anchor?

Giolito has a better scouting profile, without the makeup concerns that have dogged Guerrieri since his amateur days. The drug suspension only reinforces those concerns. I think he will rebound from the injury and rejoin the 101 very soon. But the makeup issues could slow his rise.

Also like seeing Josmil Pinto so high despite only exploding onto the prospect scene in the last year, and at a relatively advanced age. Pinto and Thorpe both went from guys I'd never heard of (even as a Twins fan who follows prospects) to guys on BP's top 101 in less than a year. Not bad.

Called up 9/3, season ended 9/29. That's 27 days in the bigs during roster expansion, leaving 46 days during the 25-man days. He's no longer rookie eligible, but is, as I like to call it, BA Eligible, as they ignore the service time minimums.

Flores is 22 years old and is basically MLB ready. He might not have the ceiling of some of the younger players, but he has a much higher floor. And the problem a lot of people have with Flores is defensive position. Is he a 2B, 3B or 1B. If he can handle 2B, then his bat will definitely make him average or higher player. If he slips all the way over to 1B, then he might not even be average.

He was in the mix. I like the kid and I think he will hit. Not sure about the power, and I'm definitely not sure about the body, But he should be able to hit for average. That said, hit tool first prospects that are first-base only types have to REALLY hit to make a splash in the prospect world.

It's not sidestepping. Jason clearly feels there is no value in comparing MLB ready players who haven't gone through the minors system with orthodox prospects. You might as well ask him where David Ortiz would rank if he was a prospect.

Was on the initial list. Good prospect; not a SS for me; bat is good but not great. I think he gets overrated a bit, but you can make a case for him in the 75-100 range, along with 20 other prospects that missed the list.

Interesting to see Alex Reyes on this list. He has been getting limited play on the Cardinals fan blogs compared to Lee Stoppelman, Zach Petrick, the 2013 first-rounders, and so on, but you're right, he's a real prospect. I do wonder, though: was his inclusion at least partly a nod to the fact that the Cardinals constantly seem to be finding and developing some diamond-in-the-rough pitcher that nobody expects to make it, like Kevin Siegrist last year?

The Yanks' system only has one guy in the top 100 at #85. I wonder if this drop is due to the change in draft pick price slotting and the cap on international draft money pool. I'm not a Yank fan, but I don't remember any major trades recently that emptied thier system.

Sano is going to struggle (as he did) against better arms. His hit tool will be enough for the power to play, but I'm not sold that his power will play to full potential. He could still end up hitting 30+ bombs, but the power will likely come at the expense of consistent contact. He's still in the top 20 prospects in the game (in an absolutely loaded class), and even though he has weaknesses in his game, the power is so good that it justifies such a high rank. I can't see ranking him in the top 5, though. Too many questions about the hit tool and defensive profile to go that crazy.

Your stuff is always a must read. Regarding Gregory Polanco, last year you noted a few questions about his long swing, ability to cover the inner half, and power. Do those same issues remain unsettled? Or do you think he has shown some intrinsic limits that might let him be a solid regular but not an all-star? If you have the time to elaborate, it would be much appreciated.

Those questions remain, but I'm still high on the player. I don;t see an all-star, but a first-division player is absolutely possible--hell, even likely. I don't see a top ten overall player, but he can do just about everything on a field at a solid-average or better level.

In Jason's defense, that paragraph then continues: " Looking at the overall package, I’m hesitant to get too crazy with the projections because of the questions about his delivery."

And the theme of the overall piece (a Cole vs. Bauer scouting report from their college days) is that Bauer's mechanics (a) will impede command/control (spot on), (b) may be artificially elevating his stuff.

I've been busy. I'm not that high on Bauer. I can recognize the talent, and at times I've given him due credit for the raw stuff. But the approach has been bad from day 1, and not much has changed on that front, which speaks to a larger but concerning issue. It's hard to defend a guy that seems to turn off everybody he comes in contact with on the player developmental front. I don't know what else to say about it. He's not the type of player I want to champion.

I'm surprised to see Phillip Ervin ranked almost 30 spots higher than Austin Meadows considering their relatively similar profiles. I always thought Meadows would rate higher, with louder tools and more projection. Any insight into what caused the separation?

Jason, I know you're drawn to high ceilings, but I wonder if the process behind WHICH high-ceiling prospects you tend to fixate on has changed (improved) in the past several years. Would you have been more/less bullish on Alfredo Tirado and Raimel Tapia, for example, if Parks circa 2010 had been spearheading this list?

Great work on this list and all the team top 10's, but I think a simple line of the tools under each prospect would be nice. The link is obviously helpful, but providing a quick snapshot of the tools on this page would be great, so it would look like this using Buxton as an example:

It would be nice to have a little list of "guys from last 101 to lose eligibility" or "notable guys who aren't eligible". Would answer questions like "Is Webster off because he wasn't that good, or he lost eligibility?" Thanks.

Your notes after the article last year were a big highlight for me and were one of the reasons that I decided to subscribe to BP in the first place. Any reason that you chose not to do them again this year? Love the off the cuff commentary.

Do you see any reason that Terry Ryan would announce in January that Kurt Suzuki is the starting catcher in Minny? What could they be hesitant about with Pinto? Suzuki is terrible offensively and doesn't throw out baserunners. I am beyond perplexed.

Prof. Parks: Seems like an above average amount of 2013 draftees, is this a fluke or do you think it's because of the earlier signing period allowing them to get professional (wood bat) experience and pro-scouts to get a look at them against better competition?